Gewinnen Mit Dem Londoner System

The London System, for those of you who aren't acquainted with it, is basically a system where White plays 1 d4 2 Nf3 and 3 Bf4, followed by the bolstering of the central d-pawn by c3 and e3. It can be played against practically any Black reply to 1 d4, but according to the authors is particularly effective against 1... d5.

The book is divided into two distinct parts. Part I consists of 30 illustrative games, while Part II is the analytical section, a reversal of the standard approach. The games are divided into sections depending on the kind of set-up Black adopts, as is the analytical section, and a short summary of the lessons to be learnt is appended to each game.

All 30 games in Part I ended as White wins, so it is perhaps superfluous for me to comment that this is a repertoire book for White! The authors discuss the pros and cons of not including a single Black victory, or even a draw, but personally I feel that such a bias in favour of White sends the wrong message. The system is certainly not as good for White as the results suggest. If it was, no one would play anything else!​As with so many off-beat systems, surprise value and a better understanding of the strategy are of greater importance than any inherent superiority of the system. What we need now is an antidote book on the lines of How To Beat The London System, or is one perhaps already in the pipeline?!